'Dickens's hypnotic storytelling and fantastic characterisation...even in its incomplete form, this remains a gripping and troubling masterpiece' Sunday Express
The story of the fate of Edwin Drood is a mystery within a mystery. When young Edwin disappears after dinner on Christmas Eve and his watch and chain are later found in the nearby river, everyone suspects foul play. Could one of Edwin's acquaintances have murdered him - and, if so, what could their motive be? And how does this shocking event in a quiet cathedral town connect to the opium dens of London? Tragically, the mystery is destined never to be truly solved, as Dickens died before he could finish this novel - all that is left are the clues that can be found in the completed chapters.
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY MATTHEW PEARL
Dickens was born on 7 February 1812 in Landport in Portsmouth. His father was a clerk in the Navy Pay Office who often ended up in financial trouble. When Dickens was twelve years' old he was sent to work in a shoe polish factory because his father had been imprisoned for debt.In 1833 he began to publish short stories and essays in newspapers and magazines. The Pickwick Papers, his first commercial success, was published in 1836, the same year that he married Catherine Hogarth. The serialisation of Oliver Twist began in 1837 while The Pickwick Papers was still running. Many other novels followed and Dickens became a celebrity in America as well as Britain. He also set up and edited the journals Household Words (1850-9) and All the Year Round (1859-70). Charles Dickens died on 9 June 1870 leaving his last novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, unfinished. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.
Title: The Mystery Of Edwin Drood (Vintage Classics)
Author: Charles Dickens
ISBN: 9780099518891
Binding:
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
Publication Date: 2009-02-05
Number of Pages: 400
Weight: 0.2995 kg
The influence of Charles Dickens on the development and achievements of detective fiction is unchallengeable * The Times *
In The Mystery of Edwin Drood Dickens brooded on crime, opium and the darkness of the soul * Sunday Herald *
Dickens's finest work in the genre of the detective story was his last ... Had Dickens lived to complete it, The Mystery of Edwin Drood would probably have challenged the supremacy of Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone... * The Times *